Field of the Invention
This disclosure relates to an image forming agent storage member and a peripheral using the image forming agent storage member, and more particularly to an image forming agent storage member capable of being refilled with an image forming agent and a peripheral using the image forming agent storage member.
Description of the Related Art
Peripherals, such as printers, copiers and the like, are indispensable apparatuses in an office. This type of peripheral has a printing module for forming predetermined patterns using image forming agents, such as toners, ink, or the like, coated on a medium (e.g., a sheet). Compared with the peripheral body, the image forming agent is consumptive and has to be replaced or refilled regularly. The frequently seen method is to replace a storage member (toner cartridge, ink cartridge or the like) with a new one filled with the image forming agent. However, this way costs higher, and disables the storage member from being used repeatedly so that the unused image forming agent is wasted. This is disadvantageous to the environment protection. In recent years, there is another practice to supply the image forming agent into the original storage member instead of replacing the storage member. For end users, the image forming agent or the storage member is not limited to a specific brand anymore so that end users are able to purchase a general supplemental package of the image forming agent. Thus, it reduces the cost and improves the convenience.
However, there are some problems in a process of injecting the image forming agent into the conventional storage member. The conventional structure for refilling the image forming agent is shown in FIGS. 1a and 1b, wherein an image forming agent refilling bottle 13 refills or resupplies an image forming agent from an image forming agent supply port 11 into an image forming agent storage member 10. The bottle mouth is designed to be sharp and long to facilitate the image forming agent in entering the storage member 10. However, when the image forming agent is entering the storage member 10, an air stream L1 from the refilling bottle to the image forming agent storage member is formed. Correspondingly, the internal air is discharged from a gap between the image forming agent supply port 11 and the bottle mouth, and an air stream L2 outputted from the image forming agent storage member and the refilling bottle mouth is scattered at the opening together with the image forming agent. For solving the above-mentioned problem, an auxiliary opening can be further designed for ventilation, but the image forming agent also tends to flow out from the auxiliary opening. The leaked image forming agent might harm a human body if entering the human body via skin or the respiratory tract, and moreover, the leaked image forming agent damages the multifunction product as well.